Perhaps not surprisingly the most visited site in Spain in 2008 was…? I ran a little poll the other day and got a flood of hits, the answers were: The Prado Museum (Madrid) 1 (33%) The Sagrada Familia (Barcelona) 0 (0%) The Alhambra (Granada) 2 (66%) The Great Mosque (Cordoba) 0 (0%) The Cathedral in…
Continuing on with the thread from my last post, I thought that I’d post a photo of what may be the most beautiful mosque in Libya. The mosque of Murad Agha was built in what is called the Al-Andalus style with a square minaret, it is an easy day trip from Tripoli. Just find the…
If you somehow managed to jump through the right bureaucratic hoops to get in independently or if you stepped off one of the luxury cruise liners that now stop daily in Tripoli, you won’t be disappointed. A land where only the government can advertise and Gaddafi watches are the hot tourist item, the until-recently-forgotten Old…
After being being designated a sensitive Military Area and therefore off limits for many years, the true end of the Trans-Siberian is once again open to visitors. Contrary to what you might think, Vladivostok (a mere 9,289 kms away from Moscow) in the summer is actually quite nice. True, there is a train that runs…
Photo by Martin Gray These beautiful shots from the Guardian a while back. The following from the site. “Acclaimed photographer and anthropologist Martin Gray has spent the last 20 years on a pilgrimage photographing and exploring more than 1,000 sacred sites in 80 countries. What follows is a selection from his new book, Sacred Earth,…
This is why you have come so far. With the Caspian reaching out to the steppe of Central Asia in front of you, the warm winds of the Middle East swirling up from below, and the cool breezes from the Caucasus mountains sweeping down from the north—a mix of styles awaits you in the Old…
Pascal Parrot/Getty Images Marseille, France: Pink flamingos rest at the Vaccares pond As the cold sweeps south, Spain is seeing some of the coldest temperatures it has seen in 30 years. Temperatures dipped down to around -4 here in Caceres the other night and some say that it was even colder. I do hope the…
Keeping in mind the article I published at the beginning of the month in the Toronto Star, I thought I would continue highlighting some of the sites of my adopted city. A fine view of the Palacio de Moctezuma here in Caceres at sunset.
I was lucky enough to have traveled through Istanbul this summer on my way to Syria and absolutely loved the city! It is truly one of the ‘world’s cities’ that vibrates as soon as you step into its streets. To add to our luck we were hosted by 2 excellent Couchsurfers, some of the most…
photo from Wikipedia The Christmas season continues here in Spain. While other countries are packing up their Christmas trees, today is traditionally the big celebration for the niños here on the Iberian peninsula. The Feast of Epiphany (January 6th) is the day where the 3 wise men or the 3 kings of the orient, bring…